Here are some spirit teachings which help us
understand that cause of much disease lies not in the
physical body, and environmental and genetic
inheritance, but in the non-physical higher bodies:
the astral, mental and spiritual. This continues the
discussion from previous articles in this series.

Note: The terms “Self” or “Higher Self” used in this
teaching refer to the eternal Soul or Spirit, as
opposed to the more temporary or short-lived physical,
etheric and astral bodies.

In ancient times “drugs as you know them were
known but not applied to the physical body as curative
agents, for they were considered a deadly poison that
would eventually bring on a worse condition than the
ailment suffered. If the ailment was considered a
serious one, the patient was placed under a
somnolistic hypnotic state and there told to adjust
the condition of his body to its normal state.
Sometimes this hypnotic treatment went on for days but
most often a few yours of it was all that was
necessary. The greater the malignancy of the disease,
the deeper the trance, until the [Higher] Self was
reached and made to tell the why of it. When the Self
explained the cause of its irritation, it was then
assured that the “outer” misunderstanding would be
corrected and it might go about repairing the rupture
between itself and its physical machine.
The desire or astral body works automatically and
without reason or logic. It thinks only in yes and no
terms, with no intermediate considerations, either
being highly pleased by a stimulation or greatly
depressed by it. In a well-[self]-controlled person,
the desire body refers all “outer” stimulation to the
High[er] Spirit or Self, and if the [Higher] Self
reasons it [the astral or emotional body] to be in
keeping with the environment it finds itself in, and
in harmony with nature, it becomes more aware of its
physical self and thereby keeps better care of it.
But if the desire body sends back a stimulation not
:natural” to the Self, it [the Higher Self] rejects
it; and if the desire body continues to send back a
stimulation once rejected by the Self, in order to
escape what it knows is not good, the Self will start
withdrawing from its physical machine by closing off
its sense of awareness of it. This slowly, or rapidly
– as the case may be – leaves the body open for the
force of death [the natural process of ageing and
decay] to take over more and more, until it breaks
down the physical body to such a degree that the Self
can no longer operate through it, even in what you
call the “subconscious” way, and so departs, and the
body soon starts to decay.
Now, some schools of the “inner teachings”
neglected to tell the people that death of the body
does not mean that the Self escapes, leaving the
desire body to die with the physical. The Self can
never rid itself of the desire body, but it must train
it to react only to the kind of stimulation that will
be good for the upward growth of itself. And the best
place for that training is while still in the physical
body for the physical body acts as an insulator
against the shocks of stimulation that contact the
[Higher] Self. When this insulation is taken away
before the person has learned to govern his [or her]
desires, upon reaching the astral plane, he will find
himself automatically acting out all that was
impressed on the desire body, [and so we have these
low disruptive spirits coming back to earth to try and
get more physical pleasure obsessing and possessing
those of us still alive]. This is one of the very
good reasons why the really honest teachers of the
“Ancient Wisdom” warned their followers to live in a
state of detachment in all their acts, so that the
desire body would not become too impressed.
Some of the ancient Egyptians and Hindus knew
well that the desire body was carried right along into
the astral, but they also believed that the desire
body would last only as long as the physical body did
not fall into dust [an erroneous belief]. And as many
of the immensely wealthy and powerful heads of those
ancient civilizations indulged greatly in
satisfactions of the body and believed that they could
go on enjoying such satisfactions also on the astral
plane under certain conditions, their ingenious minds
set about concocting a drug with which they could
embalm the physical body and keep it intact for many
thousands of years., That is why, also, all the tombs
of the great kings and pharaohs were sealed and a
curse put upon those who opened them. [Modern
Cryogenics preserves the body for the purpose of its
possible future resurrection or resuscitation].
While this was the attitude of the Egyptians and
many other ancient races of people, the Hindus held
the opposite belief. They learned to destroy the
physical body as quickly as possible after the Self
separated from it, fearing that if they did not, they
would become earthbound and have to suffer just as
they had in the physical body from the woes of the
flesh. So the Hindus cremated their dead believing it
would cause the end also of the desire body on the
astral. Then they believed that the Self, or
life-spark, having no attachments left in it, would
automatically gravitate to a Nirvanic paradise, or
become One with the Absolute. [This also was an
erroneous belief. Strong desires remain strong desires
until they are either fully satisfied or mentally and
spiritually detached from].
Fortunately, they taught the art of detachment. I
say “fortunately” because neither destroying nor
preserving the physical body makes much effect on the
desire body. The only hope for mankind is to train
the desire body while still in the physical world.
[That is one of the reasons for us incarnating. This
is the only place we can learn that kind of
self-control]. If mankind does not [train the desire
body while here on earth], it will find it extremely
more difficult to do so on any of the astral planes.
And if you want quick and continued returns to the
Earth body, just fail to train the desire body!
The earliest of man’s civilizations on Earth
fell into the dust for the same reason as all the
others that followed – and the same will happen to
yours of the present. That reason is the forgetting
of the Great Spirit and the becoming lost in the
bewildering jungle of desire, of self-satisfaction.
Believe me, friends, the nations of your world are
even now tottering on the brink of disaster – the kind
which swept [earlier civilizations away]. Many vast
and wonderful civilizations have come and gone. Many
of these met with sudden and extremely violent ends.
In fact, the entire globe has been racked and churned
from end to end, wiping man off the Earth on five
separate occasions, and destroying most of the plant
and animal life as well. But, while form may be
changed, matter out of which from is made cannot be
annihilated as long as there is the life-force in
existence. I believe, however, that it is an
observable fact in your present scientific age that,
while an entire species may appear to have been
destroyed, it will return again in a new and more
superior body for waging war against whatever it was
that caused destruction to its original body. This is
what is termed ‘conforming to environment.’”

Reviewed from teachings received from the
Inner Circle Teachers of Light through clairvoyant,
clairaudient and trance medium Mark Probert between
1947 – 1952.
Published as “The Magic Bag” by Mark Probert, San
Diego. C.A. 1963. The Inner Circle Kethra E’Da
Foundation, Inc.

Brother André of Montreal, now Saiant Andre,' did much healing in
the States whenever he visited his sister who lived in
Rhode Island. Ralph Di'Orio was born in Rhode Island
in1930 just seven before the brother’s death, and he
was to become one of the best-known healers of the
second half of the Twentieth Century, and he continues
his great work today. You may visit his websites:
www.fatherdiorio.org and www.rdohealingministry.org

At the age of eight he realized the power of prayer when his mother was
rushed into hospital in critical condition. He felt
that his prayers helped her make a quick recovery.
At fifteen he decided to become a Catholic priest and
went off to a Seminary in Chicago to study intensively
for twelve years. It was only after 19 years in the
priesthood and looking after many different parishes,
including one in Northern Canada, that the gift of
healing began to emerge. It was around Christmas, 1975
that a mysterious energy seemed to begin surging in
his body. In his own words: “my body was constantly
aflame. When I touched anything, sparks came out of
me. Electricity jumped out of my body. I didn’t know
what was happening. For a while I couldn’t touch
anything. At first I thought it was a static electric
charge from the carpets, but it wasn’t because it
happened whether there were carpets or not, and it was
stronger than any static charge I had ever felt
before. After the electricity started, my knuckles
began to hurt, and I thought I was getting arthritis.
Then pains began to pass through other parts of my
body, and I was frightened because I still didn’t know
what was happening to me.”

In February 1976, Kathryn Kuhlman the
charismatic healer died. She had possessed a powerful
electric energy that had healed hundreds of thousands.
Now Father Ralph DiOrio was to assume her role. The
healing began, again with his mother in Providence,
Rhode Island when he visited her that May. She was
very sick, and asked him to pray for her before he
left to return to his parish. He did so, laying his
hands on her head. When he got home, he phoned her.
She said that after he had left, she had a dizzy
spell for an hour, and then she felt something go
through her body, and she had been healed of her
illness. Ralph then started attending Father
McDonough’s Charismatic Renewal services in Boston, at
the request of his parishioners. After about three
months, his own healing gifts emerged. As he relates
“some people in the church asked me to pray over them,
and I felt myself, my body, filled with a new power,
and the power flowed out of me and into them. ‘Could
it be?’ I asked myself, and I was frightened. I
pulled back from it. I didn’t even finish the prayer.
I pulled away from the people. I shook my head and
muttered. ‘This can’t be.’ I said to my friend, who
had driven me to Boston, ‘Let’s go home.’ But I
didn’t tell him what had happened.
The next day, back in Fitchburg, I conducted my
regular Sunday service which, at that time, was still
a more traditional kind of service. When it was over,
a few of my parishioners came up and asked if we could
go to Father McDonough’s again. I said, ‘Oh, let’s not
go. I don’t think we should go today.’ I was
uncomfortable at what had happened the day before.
But my parishioners were insistent, and they
wouldn’t take no for an answer. ‘Let’s go, Father
Ralph! Come on, we’ve just got to go today! And it’s
special too, because it’s Mother’s Day!’ I was still
apprehensive, but I finally agreed because it seemed
so important to them.

We got into various cars and drove the fifty
miles to Boston. They were right about it being
Mother’s Day. And it was also Kathryn Kuhlman’s
birthday, May 9. What happened to me later made it a
day that I shall never forget.
When we arrived at the church, I didn’t even go
behind the Sacristy to speak to Father McDonough. I
went to the very rear of the church, all by myself,
hoping that Father McDonough would not even see me.
And as I stood there, a small girl of six or seven
came around with papers for petitions. She recognized
me from previous services when Father McDonough had
introduced me and I had preached. ‘Hi, Father Ralph,’
she said, ‘here’s a piece of paper. Why don’t you
write a petition to God? Whatever you’d like.’
‘And what should I write? I asked her.
‘Oh,’ she smiled, ‘what is in your heart.’
I looked down at her smiling face and saw that a
little child was leading me. I smiled back and said
all right. I took a piece of paper and wrote a
message in to God, a personal petition that would be
placed on the altar during the Charismatic service.
I wrote my petition in three languages: Latin,
Italian, and Spanish. I hoped that if Father
McDonough did read those petitions, he wouldn’t
understand mine. Though I wrote the petition three
different times in three different languages, I had no
control over what I wrote. My beseechings just poured
right out of me. ‘God, if it be Your Will, give me the
fulfilments of my life as a priest. Grant me a new,
complete, and worldwide ministry in the Charismatic
Renewal, specifically in the Healing Ministry, the
thing I have always wanted. Grant me a ministry to
heal the bodies and souls of mankind.’

The smiling little girl took my petition and
placed it on the altar. As soon as she put it down,
it seemed, Father McDonough spotted me in the shadows
at the back of the church and immediately called me up
to preach. I still hung back, even though I had just
written that petition asking God to grant me a new
ministry, but I couln’t refuse Father McDonough. I
walked up to the front of the church, and since it was
Mother’s Day, I preached a sermon on the Blessed
Mother.

The congregation was excited by my sermon, and
people began clapping. They seemed to want me to say
something more, maybe even do something. But I was
still holding back, so I tried to slip off quietly
behind the altar and be by myself. Suddenly a woman
ran into the small room where I was and shouted,
‘Father, hurry up! Quick! My husband is bleeding
inside his stomach.’
‘Bleeding?’ I asked. ‘Then you have to get him
to a doctor. Let’s call an ambulance right away and
get him to a hospital.’
‘No, no!’ she insisted.. ‘Pray over him!’
‘Pray over him? Come on,’ I said, ‘call the
doctor.’
But this woman would not back down. In fact, she
grew even more insistent. ‘Father!’ she demanded.
‘Pray!’
My natural instinct was to wonder if the man was
pulling my leg. It didn’t make any sense. He is
bleeding, I pray over him, and all of a sudden the
bleeding stops and he;s okay? I felt certain he was
tricking me for some reason of his own. How slow I
was to believe what was happening to me.
Then I wondered if the man was crazy. He didn’t
look crazy, though. He was just an ordinary-looking,
well-dressed, middle-aged man, and while I was
wondering about him, he got up, brushed himself off,
and went back to his seat singing, ‘Hallelujah!’
At that moment a nun came up to me, Father
McDonough’s sister, and she said, ‘Father, there’s a
woman going crazy here; she wants to kill her son and
daughter. Will you do a deliverance over her?’
Deliverance? I thought, but the nun quickly
brought the woman into the hallway where I was. I
laid hands on her for about ten minutes. The woman
got totally freed! She went back happy! I said to
myself, ‘Holy mackerel! Is this real? Is this
happening to me?’
My head was still spinning with wonder when a
school-teacher came out, a young girl about
twenty-five or twenty-six from Cambridge, and she
said, ‘Father, I have some problems, serious problems.
Will you pray with me?’
‘All right,’ I said, ‘let’s sit down.’ So I sat
with the girl in the stairwell, holding her hand. If
some old-fashioned priest had walked by, he’d probably
have complained to Rome. I held her hand and prayed
with her, and she was overpowered. A moment later she
told me, ‘I felt the heat go through my body, a
healing through my brain.’
When she went back to her seat happy and smiling,
I was left alone near the stairs in the hallway. I
was in somewhat of a daze. I couldn’t understand what
was happening to me.
As soon as the service was over, I rushed up the
side aisle of the church, trying to flee. But Father
McDonough called me back from the pulpit and asked me
to pray over a little crippled boy. I could not say
no in front of all those people, so I went up to the
little boy and placed my hands on him, and he started
moving, and people saw this. My fear rose in one last
pull, and I drew back from what was happening, but a
lady cried out to me, ‘Father, pray over me! Touch
me!’ And when I did, poom! She went right down. One
after the other, they went down. By the time I got to
the other end of the church, the whole place was laid
out! People on all sides of me had been ‘slain by the
spirit.’ Then I knew I had broken out. I understood
that God had granted me my Healing Ministry.
Later, when I was alone in my room, I had time to
think over the miraculous events of the day. I had
wanted to be fulfilled as a human being and as a
priest, and I had wanted my natural gift of doctoring
to emerge for the good of the people. My joy is
serving the people. When I wrote my petition, over
which I had no control, I wrote to God from my
subconscious heart. God, I was saying, I am going to
give you what has been in my heart. Would you do this
in my priesthood, grant me a Healing Ministry? And He
did.
All my life God has been preparing me for the
whole healing, the Holistic Healing. He was preparing
me for the healing of the wholeness of man and for the
healing of the whole world.
He must have been waiting all those years so He
could say to me, ‘Now you are ready. You have been
broken, and you have been nothing. Now you have
turned to Me; you have given Me yourself with what I
gave you in your life. Now you are ready for My
Ministry, and I am going to lead you higher and higher
and higher.’
When I thought about all these things, I suddenly
saw them in a new light. God had opened my eyes. And
suddenly I could see the pattern of my life. The Lord
had been preparing me all along for the moment when He
would decide to use me as a clear channel through
which He would send His Healing Grace to His people.
I felt very humble and very grateful to God. ‘Why me,
God?’ I asked. ‘I’m not worthy of this.’ Yes, I had
asked for the gift, the Gift of Himself Alone, but
like most people, I really didn’t think He was going
to give it. It was truly in my heart, but I never
expected to receive it. I was overwhelmed. And I
still am.”

[to be continued]

Reviewed from “The Man Beneath The Gift” by Ralph A.
DiOrio and Donald Gropman. William Morris and
Company, Inc. 1980.